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Friday, April 11, 2008



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Burger Shop Served Up For Macs
9:41 PM | Cord Kruse | Comment on this story

Burger Shop for the Macintosh is now available at Macgamestore. Created by GoBit, Burger Shop is an time management game where players make food, serve customers and create a giant burger empire. Unique food-making devices allow the creation of over 50 food items during the quest.

After receiving a set of strange blueprints in the mail, you build an extraordinary food-making contraption and open a restaurant. Your goal? To make food and satisfy customers while you explore the truth behind the mysterious mailing. Utilize unique food-making devices to make over 50 yummy food items during your quest. If you fry it, they will come!

Features:
• 4 play modes
• 80 exciting levels
• 96 trophies to collect
• Over 60 upgrade choices
Burger Shop requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later and a G4 400mHz or better Mac. It is available for $19.95 USD through Macgamestore. A free Universal Binary demo version of the game is also available for download on the web page.

Head over to the site below for more information.

Buy Burger Shop



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IMG Reviews the Saitek Eclipse Keyboard
12:27 PM | Bryan Clodfelter | Comment on this story

Inside Mac Games is pleased to announce that our official review of Saitek's Eclipse gaming keyboard is up and ready for your reading enjoyment. Here's a clip from the review:

The Saitek Eclipse, like its larger cousin, the Eclipse II, features a standard 104-key layout that is enhanced by an adjustable backlight, a variable position wrist-rest, and a limited selection of media control keys. While the "flash factor" of this kind of keyboard is relatively low, one of the greatest advantages inherent to adhering to a well-known specification is that it makes the Eclipse one of the easiest to use peripherals that we've ever seen. In our tests with Mac OS X, Windows XP, and Windows Vista, even Vista had no trouble fully recognizing every button on the keyboard without driver support. In a world dominated by hardware and software that constantly requires and endless supply of bug fixes, patches, and firmware updates, the "zero-config" Eclipse hit us like a breath of fresh air.
To check out the rest of the review, follow the link below.

IMG Review of the Saitek Eclipse
Eclipse Keyboard
Saitek



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IMG Reviews the Rain Design mStand [Updated]
9:54 AM | Bryan Clodfelter | Comment on this story

For those of you who may be considering the Rain Design mStand for your MacBook or MacBook Pro, Inside Mac Games has updated its review of the mStand to include the thermal data that was gathered as a part of our original evaluation. In order to view this additional information, simply follow the link below or navigate to the "Gallery" portion of the original review.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this update, don't forget to sound off in the forums.

IMG mStand Review - Heat Dissipation Data
mStand
Rain Design



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IMG Reviews Hordes of Orcs
6:33 AM | Marcus Albers | 3 comments

Inside Mac Games has posted a review of the new tower defense game from Freeverse and MrJoy, Hordes of Orcs. Here's a clip from the review:

But is [tower defense] a new genre? Or is it more of a subgenre? In its simplest form, the genre consists of a player strategically laying out a series of defensive towers in order to prevent enemy units from reaching their goal. That’s it. It’s a tiny piece of existing strategy games like Warcraft. This new subgenre merely strips out any additional gameplay. Gone are the multitasking requirements of resource gathering and scouting enemy territory, while duties like recruiting and training your army are all but forgotten.
Follow the link below to read the full review.

IMG Review: Hordes of Orcs
Hordes of Orcs
Freeverse
MrJoy



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StarCraft II: Using the Reaper/Medivac Combo
6:00 AM | Cord Kruse | 1 comment

In a recent post on the StarCraft II forum, Blizzard Entertainment's Karune offered some gameplay details on the advantages of using the new Reaper and Medivac units in quick base raids rather than just dropping Marines on unsuspecting enemies. StarCraft II will bring fans back to the popular sci-fi RTS universe with a new storyline and action packed multiplayer gaming.

Karune: To give a little more clarification why you would still use Reapers with Medivac Dropships rather than just dropping Marines:

1. Reapers are much faster for raiding. In dropping units (like Marines), there is a 1 second delay between each unit that is dropped. In that 8 seconds, to drop all 8 Marines, you can do a lot of damage with Reapers.
2. Reapers are anti-light units, making them very effective against resource collectors, Zealots, Zerglings, and even a Queen.
3. The Reapers' mines are extremely effective at taking out buildings for quick hit and run tactics.
4. Reapers can 'dance' up and down cliffs to keep your enemies guessing when you'll attack with little time delay, as opposed to loading and dropping Marines.

Head over to the links below for more information.

SC 2 Forums: Reaper Strategy
Blizzplanet: Starcraft 2 - Medivac/Reaper Combo
Blizzard Entertainment
StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty
Buy StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty



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Mountain Tanks Updated
6:00 AM | Cord Kruse | Comment on this story

Battery Acid Games recently released version 1.6.1 of Mountain Tanks its turn based tank battle game. The new version includes updated networking code and rotating background images.

Here's a list of changes for version 1.6.1:

• updated the networking code
• configured +/- keypad keys to adjust power
• the background images now slowly rotate
Registered users can upgrade for free, while new users can pay $18 for the full version.

For more information, click on the links below.

Mountain Tanks
Buy Mountain Tanks



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HermitWorks Hoping To Bring Space Trader To iPhone, iPod
6:00 AM | Cord Kruse | Comment on this story

Following up on the recent release of a video depicting Quake III running on linked iPod Touch devices, GameCyte tracked down HermitWorks Cameron Tofer to talk about the accomplishment. In the interview Topher also revealed that HermitWorks is planning to bring Space Trader to both iPod and iPhone, as well as a new "casual iPhone RPG" called Quest.

Sure enough, HermitWorks has set their sites on Apple’s mobile gaming platform the iPhone, but their goal isn’t to enable armies of iPod-wielding Apple fans to play Quake III; instead, they’re “madly coding,” says Tofer, to port their own Space Trader to iPod and iPhone, hopefully in time to be released in June with the official iPhone App Store. “I’d love to have it by June; we’re just in a kind of porting frenzy right now.” Problem is, in order to be a part of Apple’s official offering, they’d need at least minimal support in the form of the official Apple SDK, which has been rather late in making the rounds. HermitWorks doesn’t want to be viewed as a group of iPod hackers: they want “people to be able to go to iTunes and download” their games through an official channel.

...Details were scarce, but HermitWorks has something else hidden away in their dusty straw hut: the underpinnings of a casual iPhone RPG, tentatively called Quest. Before you call up memories of King’s Quest, Puzzle Quest or even Peasant’s Quest, know that this game isn’t your average 2D Fetch Quest. Using the same modified Quake III with the graphics “kicked up a few notches,” HermitWorks promises a heavy-duty 3D single-player role-playing experience with one very ambitious addition: instead of NPCs, characters you meet will often be other players.

Tofer was quick to dispel the notion that players will just be sitting around in shops just waiting for the hero to come buy something, but instead imagines that characters won’t always be questing about — “Once you defeat the bad guy, what’s next?” — and envisions ‘king of the hill’ situations where successful players could be toppled by others attempting to rise to power themselves.
Click over to the article below to read the rest.

GameCyte: Cameron Tofer On Quake 3 - iPod Touch Edition


Designing The Sims 3
6:00 AM | Cord Kruse | 2 comments

GamesIndustry.biz recently published a new article which takes readers behind-the -scenes to learn about the development of The Sims 3, the next installment in the successful series. EA's Rob Humble discusses the team's design philosophy and some of the unusual ideas considered for the game.

"The one thing that I walked into the room with as a mandate was 'No More Hamster Cage'," he says rather cryptically. "That came from a phrase Matt [Brown, design lead] used - during The Sims 2, they referred to the Sims as hamsters with jobs. There's a little hamster cage, and they have a little job..."

"I always thought that was incredibly limiting," Humble continues. "We needed an open world. You're not going to get where this game can go unless you can literally walk across the street and see the neighbour's kids playing in the opposite yard. You're not going to get to the next place you want to be unless you can buy a house at the top of a mountain and look down on a town. That's incredibly important, and that was job one."

So, at least one aspect of The Sims 3's design was firm from the very first meeting. As for everything else... Well, not so much. "The next step was to ask what was wrong with the Sims themselves, and how that could be improved," Humble says. "That was the initial thought - and then, frankly, our thoughts just wandered. We deliberately went blue-sky."
Head over to the site below to read the rest of the interview.

GamesIndustry.biz: Prototyping The Sims



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Reynir Harđarson Discusses EVE Online
6:00 AM | Cord Kruse | Comment on this story

Rock, Paper, Shotgun recently posted a new interview with CCP Games' Reynir Harđarson. The interview touched on a variety of topics including work with White Wolf on the World of Darkness MMO, the success of EVE Online, and upcoming additions to the online sci-fi game.

RPS: And you think MMOs need to consider themselves to be more like Facebook?
They are more like Facebook, or should be. They share the same technology, and they have to be considered as a social technology if the genuinely massively multiplayer gameplay is going to emerge. People interacting is all that matters here. We are going to stick to this vision with our games. It was what we believe in some form back in 1997 when we formed the company, and I think we demonstrated it with Eve. It really works. People like Eve and play it. They kept playing it. Twenty five percent of people who bought the game on day one are still playing it now [That number includes me – Jim] and I think that is because of how the game is structured.

RPS: Is there more to do with Eve?
Absolutely. Yes, we will continue to build on top of Eve, just as we have always done. This is how we think about massively multiplayer games: we don’t think they have a lifespan. If you run them correctly, keep updating the technology, keep it fresh, there’s no limit to how old it is. There’s no “product” with “shelf life” it’s a system, an experience, that you log into and play with. I find it strange that with so many games that they create it, launch it, perhaps create a couple of expansions and then work on the sequel. These games do not grow. We don’t want to think of it that way, we want to keep evolving. With Eve there’s no indication of “shelf life”, I don’t see why it couldn’t run for fifty years. We put a lot of development into Eve and we’ve overhauled the 3D engine, included all new ship models, and that process will continue. In June we’re going to add more… factional warfare.
The full Q&A is available at the link provided below.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: EVE Online & World Of Darkness
CCP Games
TransGaming
EVE Online


Mac Games News for Thursday, April 10, 2008

Podcast Updates7:26 PM
A Second Look At World of Warcraft6:00 AM
An Early Look At Penny Arcade Adventures6:00 AM
Apple Games Features Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords6:00 AM
Jack Keane Coming To Macs6:00 AM
 
View all of the Mac games news for Thursday, April 10, 2008 on one page


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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
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